Lack of Control
by DarkLordBervin
Summary: Incapable of over powering and overwhelm opponents, Naruto never had the luxury of having a vast amount of chakra. With a seal designed to use his own chakra to keep the beast within he'll have to fight not with power but with control.
1. Chapter 1

**Lack of Control**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 1

Sun kissed blonde hair swayed with the rustling wind as a boy no older than 12 walked along the desolate walkway toward his apartment. The roads were void of all people as if he was the only person within the village of Konohagakure.

He walked quietly as each step he made held no sound. Clear sapphire eyes looked ahead not seeing what was around him but set on a clear destination. The boy wore a light orange shirt with a red spiral on the front. His dark khaki shorts hung just low enough to cover knees as his hands gripped his sides tightly to cover himself up just a tiny bit more from the blowing gales.

Beneath the dirt and sweat that covered his face showed six whisker like marks on his cheeks, three on each side. This birth mark started from his cheek bones down to his jaw line which made for an interesting facial feature that was special only to the young man. His spiky blonde locks slightly covered his eyes casting a shadow that made his eyes look cold yet fierce and tamed.

The young man reached his destination, which was an old beaten down building. Walking up the stairs the young man reached into his shorts pocket to retrieve a set of keys with a little leaf key chain attached to it. Reaching the doors to his room the door read _Uzumaki Naruto_.

Opening the doors Naruto quietly made his way to his bed room and collapsed. Exhausted from all the things he did that day the boy didn't even bother to change into his sleep ware before even going to bed.

Covered in dirt and sweat Naruto promptly fell asleep, his face holding a serene look. While his face showed peace as he slept but the things happening within his subconscious was anything but.

_Drip._

_Drip._

_Drip._

The sound of water dripping caused Naruto to open his eyes awakening him from his slumber. Or so he thought. Looking around Naruto found himself in a low lit room. Water were up to his shins as the sewer like place rumbled. The water he stood in vibrated causing ripples to appear all around him. The rumbling stopped as the water continued to ripple around him until a few seconds it slowed, until it seized.

Confused at his predicament, the boy remembered making it back to his room and falling asleep on his bed. The location he was currently in left him wondering how he woke there. Looking behind him he saw just a wall. He looked up to see if maybe there was a hole he might have fallen through but only found that he could not even see the ceiling due to the poor lighting and the size of the room.

With the only way but forward Naruto walked forward without a clear destination or an idea of where the path lead to. He continued along the path only to come into a large room that was three times as big as the Hokage Monument. Walking into the room he found that only one half of the room was lit by the torches along the walls while the other half was covered in darkness. Walking further into the room he saw a piece of paper floating in the center of the room. It looked no bigger than a scroll.

Naruto walked towards the floating piece of paper and found himself wide eyed as he gasped when he reached the paper. The scroll sized piece of paper wasn't floating, it was attached to a large glass wall of ice that separated the lit side of the room and the dark side.

Placing a hand on the ice wall he found it to be unusually warm. He drew his hand back and formed a fist and banged on the glass wall. The wall vibrated lightly and allowed the blonde to see that the wall stretched from both sides clearly separating the room with no way to get to the other side.

Disappointed at the road block, and slightly scared. Naruto found that he was trapped. If he couldn't go forward then he had no where else to go since going backwards would just lead him back to where he started, a dead end.

Looking back at the piece of paper that was attached to the glass wall he saw that it had symbols written on it. Looking at the paper he saw a spiral in the middle and weird, almost tribal looking symbols around it. Reaching for the the paper Naruto took a sharp breath and jumped back in surprise as a pair of floating slitted red eyes appeared from the darken abyss beyond the glass wall.

Naruto fell to his side from the sudden shock as the ice wall started to vibrate causing the water around him to ripple once again. The darkened side of the room started to brighten as the torches on the other side started to light one by one until the whole room was lit in a dim light. Beyond the glass wall was a being that stood as high as the Hokage Monument, and then some. One, two, three,... Nine tails swayed around the figure. The fox like being stared down Naruto, neither making a sound as the the rippling water around him started to stop.

Silent and in shock Naruto was unable to make a single sound. They continued their little stare down as the fox looked at him with cold red eyes without a hint of emotion while Naruto's own eyes were wide from shock.

"Wha..." Naruto chocked on his own words as he tried to find his voice.

"W-what, are you?"

The being continued to stare down at his small frame not making a sound. Naruto stayed silent and waiting for the fox like being to answer his question. He slowly got up from his side finding that he wasn't wet. He didn't noticing it while he was walking through the water but he found that the 'water' around him didn't seem to be liquid at all since it didn't cling to him like water should.

Once Naruto was standing the fox opened its jaws to reveal jagged rows of teeth.

"_**I see that you have finally come, my jailor."**_

Naruto blinked as he waited for the fox to continue. The fox was about several times larger than a building. By his estimate… it was fucking enormous. A huge maw with rows of sharp, pointed canine teeth, with black around its eyes, huge arms folded in front of it where it was resting its head on and, if his eyes didn't deceive him, nine massive tails swishing about behind it.

**"I am the Demon Fox Kyuubi no Yoko."**

The fox grinned showing off his deadly teeth once more as Naruto could only utter a simple 'oh'.

Tilting his head as he looked at the gigantic fox he remained silent. A few seconds passed as the boy continued to stare at the fox with a neutral face causing the fox the growl in annoyance.

**"Speak mortal!"**

Blinking and looking around Naruto once again gazed upon the beast, "Am I dead?"

Taken back by the conclusion his jailor was led to Kyuubi looked at him with impassible eyes.** "What makes you think that you are dead, human."**

Crossing his arms, "The Fourth killed you so you're dead." The boy licked his lips and continued, "The villagers call me a demon, so I'm just guessing this is where demons go when they die."

Since the moment Naruto could remember a single memory, the villagers words of 'demon', or 'kyuubi brat' have been integrated into his memories. Of course Naruto didn't believe himself to be a demon like the villagers thought he was but standing there in front of his was the dead Kyuubi. If he was looking at the real Kyuubi then he must be in hell with all the other demons. 'I guess the villagers were right,' Naruto thought to himself.

Naruto was knocked from his thoughts as Kyuubi started to laugh. The fox laughed loud as it wiped an imaginary tear from its eyes.

**"You are not dead boy,"** The fox continued to grin mischievously, **"We are in your mind, your subconscious."**

Not completely understanding what Kyuubi meant Naruto could only look at the Demon Fox in confusion, but was glad he wasn't dead.

**"All this is real, boy. This isn't come dream that you're puny mind made up while you were asleep. This is reality. We are in you subconscious, inside your mind, your body."**

It was then that, after several moments of mind numbing piece work, Naruto realized that he had seen the markings on the piece of paper before. Looking down he lifted his shirt to show the same markings on his stomach that was written on the paper.

'A seal'

Naruto had once inquired the old man, Hokage-jiji, about the strange markings he had noticed on his person when he was little. It was after a particularly bad day from him.

_*Flashback*_

_Naruto was not having a good day. He had woken up to find that his instant ramen supply was gone so he decided to eat out at Ichiraku as a way of "indulging" himself for all the practicing he's done with his ninja techniques he learned at the academy._

_Even though it was his first year he had been given early permission from jiji to attend the ninja academy at the early age of seven. Now most kids didn't attend the academy until they were at least ten due to the fact that most kids younger than ten didn't have the chakra capacity to use jutsu's, even academy level jutsu's._

_It wasn't until they were old enough, in most cases for children the age of 10, that kids attended the academy. Naruto was a special case though. At the young age of seven he had the chakra reserves of a gennin._

_Now it's not a surprise for a kid of Naruto's 'condition' to have abnormally high chakra reserves but Naruto was a strange case. He was born with naturally high reserves but it seemed like the amount he had wasn't nearly the amount he should have had. Either ways he was given the rights to attend the academy and was well on his way to become a ninja._

_As a way to reward himself for studying and working hard Naruto decided that he could have some Ichiraku ramen for breakfast, since he was out of food anyways. When he came upon the ramen stand he found that it was closed!_

_'Closed for the remainder of the day due to_

_extenuating circumstances.'_

_"Agh, how am I suppose to get some food now!" Naruto shouted causing a few people around to glare at the frustrated boy._

_"I really wanted a bowl of miso ramen today!"_

_Huffing at the closed ramen stand Naruto reared back and kicked a good size rock that was in front of him. The rock sailed across the air a good 5 meters and hit a man walking along the road._

_The man fell from the hit causing him to swear profanity. "Who the hell hit me with that stone!"_

_The man furiously looked around for the culprit while the people around him backed away as he leaked killing intent._

_Around his head was a bandana like headband with a leaf insignia showing that the man was a ninja of Konoha. He wore a light brown vest with different pockets and compartments showing that he was a chunin. The man had several scars on his face showing he had gone through tough battles. He had short brown hair that was barely covered by his bandana style headband. His dark brown eyes scanned the surrounding area looking for his assailant._

_His eyes locked with Naruto's and narrowed. Naruto made an 'eep' sounds and quickly turned to run from the furious man._

_Running at full speed, which was quite fast for a 7 year old, Naruto made a wide turn into the Konoha commercial district._

_The commercial district was one of the most crowded places in Konoha due to the amount of stands and shops located in the area. Ichiraku was actually really lucky to have a stand just right out of the district. With the amount of people shopping and hanging out at the district, they were always filled with customers during busy eating periods._

_Naruto jumped over a fruit vendor that was holding a crate full of apples causing the vendor to jump with surprise dropping his fruits._

_"You damn brat!" The fruit vendor yelled out waving his hands in a fist as he cursed out the hated boy._

_"Sorr-!" Naruto tried to yell back but quickly swallowed his words as he saw the ninja still chasing him and was not that far off._

_Running faster than he's ever before Naruto made quick sly moves through the crown, ducking and weaving even sliding under the legs of the people around him in hopes of losing his pursuer._

_Looking back again he saw that the the man wasn't within sight. Making a sharp left to the direction of the Hokage building. Slowing down to a walking speed Naruto chuckled to himself._

_His laughter quickly died as he suddenly noticed that he was all alone. Now it wasn't unusual for him to be left alone during the day as he was used to being ostracized but the main road to the Hokage building was hardly ever empty. Looking around he didn't see anyone, not a single soul. He couldn't hear the birds chirping or even the soft rustling sound of the trees as the wind blew._

_Naruto had a bad feeling as his walk turned to a jog, then to a sprint as he looked franticly back and forth as he passed by buildings. He kept running but no matter where he went there was no one around._

_Breathing hard Naruto's mind was going crazy trying to understand what was happening. 'Jiji!' Naruto thought._

_If anyone knew what was happening then it would be the old man! The old geezer didn't get that cool pointy hat for nothing. He's bound to know whats going on._

_Running inside the Hokage building Naruto found that there was still no one around. Rushing up the flight of stairs Naruto misstepped causing him to face plant hitting himself on the sharp edge of the stairs._

_'Oww' Naruto rubbed his head and looked at his hand. It was covered in blood. The sharp edge must have cut him. Biting back the tears that welled in his eyes he stood up and ran back up the stairs._

_Reaching his destination Naruto literally kicked down the door._

_"Jiji!"_

_No one answered. There was no one in the room. Naruto Frantically ran up to the seat that usually housed the old man and looked under the desk as if he would find his Jiji underneath the brown oak desk._

_"Kukukuku"_

_A laughter caused Naruto to sharply look around trying to find the only source of sound he's heard besides his own. Frantically looking from left to right Naruto wasn't able to find the source._

_"Who's the- agh!"_

_Naruto bit back a shout as his left cheek was suddenly sliced open. Holding his hand to the wound he was unable to find the source of the attack._

_"I'm going to have some fun with you brat."_

_Naruto was once again cut by an unknown force as another wound appeared on his cheek tracing one of his whisker birthmark. Wincing at the pain Naruto's eyes widened as he felt more wounds appear on each of his whiskers._

_"Demons have no right to walk these streets."_

_Naruto looked around for the source of the voice an bit back a scream as the cuts on his face started to burn intensely. More wounds started to appear on his body as he could only scream loudly and curl up in a fetal position._

_"Kukukukuku"_

_Naruto screamed louder as the immense amount of cuts all over his body and face intensified to pain he had never felt before. It was like salt was being rubbed on his cuts and there was no decrease in pain. Naruto could only scream as things started to get hazy._

_The pain was getting worst as Naruto's voice started to get hoarse. The lights around him started to darken and before he let the darkness take him he saw a figure in front of him._

_"Jiji"_

_Sarutobi Hiruzen was not in a good mood. Being the Kage of a village was a job that required a lot of patients. From the amount of paperwork he was required to look over each day to the juggling of village politics that he had to deal with each day takes a ton load of patients._

_In front of him were two village farmers that were appealing to him about a dispute about land. One farmer was angry that the other was allowing his cattle to drink upon the water spring that was in his land._

_The other farmers defense was that the spring was close enough to his land that he was entitled to use it for his cattle._

_"Hokage-sama, please this man has clearly out stepped his boundary." The farmer to his left sneered._

_"I am quite entitled to that spring, Hokage-sama. Quite entitled!" The farmer to his right sneered back._

_Sighing Hiruzen rubbed his forehead at the coming headache. "There is a reason we have a civilian council. Take it upon them."_

_"But Hok-"_

_"But Hok-"_

_Both men were cut short as the doors to his office was kicked open with a shout of, 'Jiji'!_

_Startled at the sudden ruckus both men turned around to see a little blonde boy to be the source of the commotion._

_"Hokage-sama, this ruffian just went through without permission. I tried to stop him but he didn't even listen!" A woman said from behind the boy trying to hold him back._

_The boy just wretched himself from the woman as is she wasn't even holding him down and ran past the two farmers and came upon Hiruzen's seat._

_"It's alright Tatsuko-san, don't worry about little Naru-chan."_

_The woman just huffed at the dismissal and closed the doors but not before shooting Naruto a piercing glare which the boy didn't even take notice of._

_"Hokage-sama, we are in a middle of a meeting!"_

_"Yes! This is quite disrespectful!"_

_The two farmer turned a slight shade of red from anger at how the little demon barged into their meeting._

_"Hiraku-san, Arata-san the civilian council will deal with your problems." Hiruzen said politely causing the two men to shoot evil glares at the little boy behind the desk._

_Taking that as a cue to leave the two farmers left muttering curses at 'the demon'._

_Once the two men had left Hiruzen sighed and smiled as he turned to the little blonde boy._

_"Now Naru-chan that was very rude of you. I was in a meeting you know." The old man chided slightly._

_"Al though they were getting 'quite' bothersome." He chuckled slightly at his own mocking of the one farmer who used the word 'quite' too many times when he spoke._

_"Now what are you doi-" Hiruzen was cute short as Naruto suddenly ran to the middle of the room._

_"Who's the- agh" The boy was frantic as he looked around the room as if searching for something only to stop and grasp at his cheek in pain._

_"Naruto are you okay?" The old Hokage asked getting up from his seat._

_Standing in front of the boy he wasn't even a few meters away from the boy when he started to start screaming. Naruto dropped to the ground in a fetal position and started to scream even louder._

_"Get a hold of yourself Naruto!" Hiruzen said worriedly. Touching the boy he felt a disturbance in the boys chakra. Seeing the signs of genjutsu being placed on the boy he quickly fluctuated his chakra to dispel the foreign chakra that had invaded Naruto's pathways._

_"Jiji"_

_The boy promptly passed out as Hiruzen held the little boy in his arms._

_"Inu!"_

_A man suddenly appeared dressed in a grey flank jacket with a sleeveless black shirt underneath that covered his neck and extended to his face. He had grey gravity defying hair and a mask that covered his face that looked slightly like a dog. He was kneeling in front of the Hokage awaiting orders._

_"Bring Naruto to the hospital."_

_The masked man nodded and took the boy from the Hokage's arms. Disappearing in a swirl of leaves Hiruzen walked over to his desk and pressed the intercom._

_"Yes Hokage-sama"_

_"Tatsuko-san, please hold all my meetings for the day."_

_Not giving the woman a chance to reply the Hokage disappeared in a swirl of leaves, similar to how the Inu ANBU did._

_A bright light caused Naruto to groan as his eyes fluttered open trying to find the source of the light weakly._

_"Ughh, where am I"_

_Naruto looked around and found himself in a bed covered in white sheets. The walls around him were blindingly white as the smell of alcohol and disinfectant entered his nose._

_'I must be in the hospital, only the walls are this white in there.'_

_Groaning as he sat up he cracked his back and heard a chuckle from across the room. Looking up he screamed "Jiji!" as he saw the old man chuckling from the door way._

_"Well good morning to you too Naru-chan." The old man walked to the boy and placed something on the table by his bed._

_"I figured you'd be hungry so I brought you some ramen from Ichiraku's."_

_The boy got a gleam in his eyes and with a yell of 'Yatta!' grabbed the chopsticks from the mans hands._

_"How did you get these Jiji?" Naruto asked, "I went there and it said that it was closed for the day..."_

_Naruto slowed as he remembered what had happened. He remember getting chased but not who. He remembered he was alone and then pain, a lot of intense pain._

_With a confused look the young blonde looked up at his grandfather figure and asked, "What happened Jiji?"_

_With a pained looked the Hokage answered his question, "It seems like you were caught in a genjutsu Naruto." Taking a seat on the chair beside his bed, "It was quite a powerful one too."_

_Even more confused Naruto looked at the Hokage with even more confusion, "But why do people hurt me Jiji?"_

_Hiruzen mentally winced at the innocent question, "I don't know Naru-chan," he lied to the boy and visibly winced when tears started to leak from the boys eyes._

_"I just don't understand Jiji, why do they hate me so much." The boy cried out softly. Pulling the covers off him to show the slight scars he had on his arms and chest. There wasn't a lot but more than what any little boy should have._

_"I have all these and I don't even know why."_

_"I'm sorry Naruto." That was the only thing the Hokage said to comfort the little boy._

_It pained him to see the vibrant young boy breaking down. It hardly happened but seeing those few tears that sometimes manages to get through always cut at his hear._

_'Minato... Kushina...'_

_The boy wiped away the few tears that made it out and stayed silent. Looking over his scars he saw one on his left forearm that came from a drunken villager one night. An 'X' like scar on his left chest from one of his caretakers when he was little and was still in the orphanage._

_What really caught his attention was the glowing symbol on his stomach. Not knowing what it was he lightly traced it causing the Old man to suddenly grab his hand._

_"W-what is it Jiji?" Naruto asked._

_'There must still be some lingering chakra from the genjutsu in Naruto's system.' Hiruzen thought to himself._

_"It's a seal Naruto."_

_"What's a seal" Naruto asked tilting his head slightly showing his confusion._

_"It's a ninja technique, Naruto. Don't worry too much about the seal, okay Naru-chan."_

_The boy nodded but was still curious about what a ninja technique was doing on his stomach._

_"How about you eat up this bowl of ramen before it gets cold," Hiruzen suggested seeing how the boy was still thinking about the seal._

_With a smile and a nod the boy dug into the bowl as the old man watched on with a smile._

_*Flashback end*_

Now Naruto hadn't forgotten about the seal while Jiji tried to distract him with ramen. He knew that the old man was trying to get him to not to think about it with the use of ramen, but it had caught Naruto's interest.

He had tried to find ways to learn about seals but was unable to find anything. The seal disappeared and without his knowledge that he needed to channel chakra to have the seal appear, his young mind completely forgot about it.

Looking at the Kyuubi with unreadable eyes the boy asked it a question, "What is a seal?"

The fox grinned maliciously showing off its fanged mouth once again and answered the boys question, **"Fuuinjutsu are ninjutsu sealing techniques that allows ninja's to contain anything within a medium."**

Looking down at the seal on his stomach and black up to the seal paper hard realization set in on Naruto. "You're sealed in me."

If it was possible the fox demon grinned even wider,** "Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. Way to finally figure that one out human."**

Naruto looked lost in thought as he contemplated the new revelation that was just dropped upon him.

"What does this mean."

Kyuubi continued to smile and answered, **"It means that all the glaring, the snide remarks, the beatings, the hatred. It was all because you contained me."**

The demon laughed loudly at what he perceived was a look of defeat on his host's face, **"The whole reason for your miserable life was because you house me within you."**

Naruto stayed silent with a look of no emotion showing on his face. Taking it as a sign of hopelessness, 'This is perfect if I could get the kid to believe that that his terrible life was because of me then maybe I could get him to remove the seal.'

Looking at the kid the Kyuubi opened it's maw and spoke, **"Remove the seal kid. Remove the seal and the one that has caused the villagers to hate you will be gone. I will be gone from you, so there would be nothing for the humans to hate."**

"Eh," Naruto said interrupting the beast, "I'm not stupid enough to do that. From what I can deduce from this is that getting rid this seal would do more harm than good."

The Kyuubi was thrown off but wasn't too surprised. It was a long shot but hey he had to give it a try.

Chuckling the demon stood up on all four of its legs and looked down on Naruto. **"Are you not upset that the villages hate you for holding me?"**

"Not a bit," Naruto said as he shook his head slowly. "Sure I could bitch about this but, what's the use. Besides," Naruto looked up at the demon with cold blue eyes, "I stopped caring about what the villagers thought of me long ago."

The fox stared back at his contained as a smile crept up his face until he started full on laughing. **"I like you kid, you're interesting. Things will be more fun with you"**

"Whatever, see you around fur ball." Naruto said as he turned around.

He heard the demon growl in response causing a smile to form on his face, not that the fox could see it.

* * *

Light peaked through his windows causing Naruto to groan and cover his face with his pillow. 'Damn light, go away so I can sleep.'

Before he could even attempt to fall back to sleep a ringing noise from his alarm clocked caused him to growl in annoyance. His hand whipped out and grabbed the forsaken item and chucked it. The clock smashed against the wall falling to the ground along with its fellow brethren.

Naruto blinked as he remembered the events that happened in his dreams. Throwing the covers off of him Naruto lifted his shirt and searched for the seal that should have been etched on his stomach.

Nothing. The seal that was suppose to be there wasn't.

'Hehe, I guess I just have a crazy imagination.' Naruto thought to himself.

**"That might be the only thing you have going for you."**

Naruto jumped in surprise as a deep rough voice spoke to him.

"Who's there!" Naruto called out.

**"Argh, stop you're infernal screaming human."**

"Who are you?" Naruto called out in a slightly lower voice, but not much since he was still semi-screaming.

**"Grr, shut up human. Or did you forget about our meeting already."**

"Kyuubi?" Naruto blinked in confusion.

**"Ah, and you're intelligence level is at least past retardation."**

Growling at the insult, "Oi, shut up you lumpy house pet."

**"What did you call me you ape!"**

"Well considering you're all locked up I figured you're equivalent to a little kitten." Naruto smirked as the 'little kitten' growl and threaten to 'shove his building sized leg up his ass'.

**"Feh, you're not worth my time."**

"Oh? And what do you have that's so important, I'm sure watching the water drip is so time consuming."

**"Shut up."**

Smiling at his win Naruto once again looked down at his stomach wondering if the Kyuubi was real then where was that seal.

**"Channel chakra idiot."**

Scrunching up his forehead at the advice Naruto channeled chakra and gasped as he saw the seal appear before his eyes.

It was exactly as he had remembered it all those years ago. Blinking at how easy it was to make it appear Naruto couldn't help but slap his forehead at his stupidity.

**"Maybe you're intelligence isn't past the retardation line."**

"Shut up."

In Naruto's defense when ever he trained he never channeled chakra unless he was practicing the academy jutsus. Sure he's taken his shirt off when practicing taijutsu during those hot days but chakra wasn't needed to punch or kick the post.

"Whatever I have to get to the academy soon."

Naruto rose up from his bed and went to go change. Seeing how he was still in his cloths from the other day he wrinkled his nose as he took a sniff of his shirt.

'I guess sleeping in clothes that I trained in wasn't such a good idea.'

Taking his clothes off and throwing them into the hamper Naruto went into his bathroom to take a shower.

"Oi, Kyuubi don't be checking me out while I shower."

Naruto only laughed when the demon started cursing him out.

* * *

Naruto was walking down the road as he headed for the academy.

"So how are you talking to me now." Naruto was curious since the fox had never made contact with him before.

**"When you touched the seal I was able to form a link since you made contact with your latent chakra.**

"Huh, what do you mean latent chakra?"

***sigh* "Stop talking out loud kid it makes you sound crazy."**

Blinking at the statement Naruto looked around him and blushed as the people around him were pointing and whispering.

"Mommy. Mommy why's that boy talking to himself" A little girl asked her mom as the woman grabbed the girls hand and dragged her to the opposite side of the road Naruto was walking on.

"Don't stare Ai-chan."

Naruto blushed even harder and started walking faster trying to get away from the people that heard him talking to myself.

**"Speak in your mind."**

He could just hear the amusement dripping from the fox.

'You never told me that you bastard!'

**"I know"** The Kyuubi grinned to himself as the boy muttered dark curses to himself causing the people around him to once again point and whisper.

'Oi, what did you mean by my latent chakra?'

He could hear the beast sigh from within its confinements.

**"It's what's keeping me from escaping this kami forsaken entrapment."**

Seeing how his container didn't understand Kyuubi elaborated.

**"Your seal is designed to siphon from your own reserves to create an actual physical crystallization of your chakra to keep me trapped within you."**

Contemplating the piece of information that he just received, 'Does that mean I'm actually working with a depleted amount of chakra?'

**"Yes."**

"Well that sucks," Naruto actually vocalized and sighed, he kind of hoped that since he was confining a mass chakra entity that he gained some kind of perk from it. Learning that he was actually hindered even more by it just sucked.

**"It's actually damn impressive that you have enough chakra to become a ninja..."**

A grin formed on Naruto's face, 'Aw Kyuu-chan you big softie'

**"...for a human."** Kyuubi growled out.

'Yeah, yeah you mass chakra of hatred and destruction.'

Coming upon the academy Naruto entered through the front doors and proceeded to Iruka-sensei's class.

Taking a seat next to the usual stoic Aburame Naruto scanned the class room which consisted of various clan heirs. The boy he was sitting next to was the Aburame clan heir, Aburame Shino.

The boy hardly ever talked in class. He was dressed with a high collared jacket that slightly covered his lower face. He wore dark round sunglasses that covered his eyes from view.

The boy himself was pretty antisocial but from what he remembered in the class rankings he was very smart.

No one beat Haruno Sakura in the smarts department, well maybe Nara Shikamaru but he was too lazy to defend that title. Sakura was the textbook definition of book smarts. With her high memorizing ability she was considered to be one of the smartest girls in the glass.

Naruto sweat dropped as said girl came barging through the door shoulder to shoulder with another clan heir, Yamanaka Ino.

The two girls were the self proclaimed 'love' of Uchiha Sasuke, the last remaining loyal Uchiha in the village.

Sasuke was considered to be a prodigy in the making and was miles a head of everyone for the title 'Rookie of the year'. The boy was very smart and when it came to physical condition was only rivaled by Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba. As much as Naruto didn't want to admit it the Uchiha was a damn good ninja.

"HA, I got here first Ino-pig." Sakura yelled in a loud voice causing a groan from the lazy Nara.

"Okay," Ino responded with sarcasm, "I think you're large forehead is full of hot air today because there is no way that you beat me here!"

The two girls glared at each other causing a collective sigh from everyone in the room.

'Well that was weird' Naruto thought as he blinked, 'Was I the only one that noticed that?' as he glanced around the room to see if anyone else did.

The two girls were stopped from their bickering as a man with a scar across his nose entered the room. He wore the standard chunin flank jacket and the leaf head band signifying his ninja status.

"Everyone sit down and shut up!" The man yelled causing the two girls to squeak and hastily take a seat, but not before turning to glare at each other once again.

Iruka just sighed and turned to address the class. "Alright guys, today we're going to start things off with a little taijutsu class ranking test."

Getting a groan from a collective group of kids a tic mark appeared on his forehead. "Well if you all don't enjoy taijutsu then I think we'll have to have a little ninjutsu review after."

More groans resounded from the class causing Iruka's tick mark to kids all stood and began to gather in the outside training field where the taijutsu test was to be performed.

Maybe once a month the class would have a test like this for specific ninja arts whether it be ninjutsu, taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, or other things to gauge the class rankings. It was essential for a militarized academy to have up to date information on their future ninja candidates.

On the training field was a large drawn chalk circle that outlined the boundaries for where the matches would take place. Forcing your opponent out of the circle would result in your win and the disqualification of the other. It was a simple taijutsu only battle.

The test went off smoothly with the students showcasing their talents to the two academy teachers. There were notable fighters that were already ranked pretty high in the area such as Sasuke, Hinata, and Choji.

All three were from notable clans. Hinata was akin to royalty within Konoha's walls. Her clan, the Hyuuga's, were considered to be the top clan in the village known for their doujutsu, the Byakugan, and their unmatched taijutsu.

Choji himself was a powerhouse with his Akimichi built. Mainly a front line sort of family the large bodies of Akimichi clan members were made for power, than speed.

"Next fight, Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki Naruto." A cry of 'Yahoo!' from the dog boy rang out as he took his place in the center of the circle. Naruto however wasn't paying attention as he was talking to his tenant.

'I really like the beef ramen but I want the seafood ramen, which is different from the seafood ramen but that's pretty good too'

The Kyuubi could only sweat drop as the boy had been talking to it about ramen for the past half hour.

"NARUTO!" Iruka shouted but was ignored by the oblivious blonde.

'Hmm oh I know I'll have all of th-'

Naruto's train of thought was interrupted as he suddenly ducked down causing a fist to go right by where his head should have been.

Sakura was shocked that the boy had dodged her punch as she had been behind him.

Turning around, "What was that for?" Naruto asked with a little steel in his voice.

Sakura stuttered to make a reply. Naruto was usually pretty docile, except when in a fight. He kept to himself, but while he might not have been completely antisocial and silent like a certain Aburame he was still pretty reclusive.

"Ah-I..."

She was saved as a fist came crashing down on the whisker marked boy courtesy of Iruka.

"You idiot, I've been calling your name for the past minute!" Iruka said with a tick mark on his forehead.

"Itai, Iruka-sensei you're not suppose to hit your students."

Naruto rubbed his head head in pain.

"Just get in the ring Naruto, it's your turn!"

Naruto grumbled under his breath as he walked into the the circle and faced his opponent. Having set down his trusted dog, the taijutsu match was to be a one on one match.

The feral boy grinned in confidence, "Lucky me getting the dead last." The boy was cocky as they come but with all his talk he did have some skills to back it up.

"Yeah, yeah mutt." Naruto just waved off the kid causing the boy to growl out in anger.

In between them was Iruka with his hand up and he looked between the two to see if they were ready. Getting the nod from both combatants he lowered his arm signifying the start of the match.

As soon as the battle started the Inuzuka boy rushed Naruto with his arms trailing behind him. Once reaching his target the boy started things off by testing out Naruto's defense with a few swipes courtesy of his razor sharp finger nails.

Naruto merely dodged the probing attack by swaying in place and giving the passing arms a slight push keeping the boy unbalanced through his attack.

Everyone watched as the two boys fought with savage abandon, well at least Kiba was attacking with ferocity. Naruto was just dodging all of the kids attack.

While Kiba was one of the fastest students in the academy Naruto was just a step above his speed. Dodging each strike with a parry and blocking only when the boy used something other than his claws to attack with.

Kiba growled in frustration as the dobe of the class had dodged every strike he'd thrown at him. One thing he know from his past fights with the blonde was that dodging and parrying was his strong suit. Maybe his only strong suit when it came to fights.

Getting even more frustrated Kiba tried to move faster than what he was capable of and went for a sweeping mid kick that Naruto took full advantage of.

Crouching low to the ground to dodge the attack letting the leg go right pass where his head would have been, but before the leg could complete it trajectory Naruto made a waving sweep with his arm almost like he was waving and pushed the dog boys leg causing him to land unbalanced after the attack.

Seeing his chance at an opening as Kiba had his back almost towards him Naruto let off a sweeping right hook that manage to hit Kiba but was met with an elbow.

Both fighters jumped from each other making space as they both stared each other down in a deadlock.

Kiba was breathing heavily as he had done most of the attack in the fight. 'Kami, he's as slippery as ever' Kiba thought to himself as he glared at his opponent, 'If he had the form and technique to back up his dodging ability he'd be a lot harder to beat.'

It was true that Naruto had a nack for fighting around an enemy considering he was very quick and had the dexterity to run rings around an attacker. What he had in his defense he lacked in his offense.

While it's easy to train his body to be quicker and to be stronger it was another thing to train skill and technique. Having no one to train him, even in the academy, his lack of footwork and skill left most of his punches and kicks to be less effective than they could have been.

It never got the resilient boy down though as he still trained heavily day in and day out.

Almost like an unseen agreement between the two they both rushed at each other ready at the same time for another round. This time Naruto was done going on the defensive and started things off with a sloppy sweeping kick that Kiba just jumped over and aimed a kick at his head while still in midair.

Showing off his flexibility Naruto swayed backwards in such an angle that the people that were watching around him wondered how he bent in such a way.

Letting the momentum of his sway carry him down Naruto stuck his hand on the ground and aimed a kick to unsuspected boy catching him straight on the chest.

With a sound of 'oof' the Inuzuka boy clutched his chest with a hand instinctively allowing Naruto the time to come to stand and fire off a combinations of rights and lefts that caused quite a bit of damage. Naruto may not have the technique but he sure as hell had the speed and power.

Jumping back to avoid anymore of the onslaught Kiba wiped his mouth and found blood on the back of his hand.

'Feh, he cut me.'

Naruto smirked at getting first blood, so to say. Rushing back at Kiba not giving him the room to breath Naruto threw hooks and straights at the boy.

Kiba could only block the punches but even then he was taking in too much damage. The hook that caught him in the last exchange got to his legs and he couldn't move at full speed so dodging wasn't an option.

Naruto continued his barrage and managed to break through Kiba's guard. With a glint in his eyes Naruto ran forward and threw a slow running punch that he knew Kiba could side step easily.

As he threw the punch Kiba manage to pivot and sway to his right allowing the punch to sail pass his head and Naruto going right past him due to the momentum he put into the punch and his running.

Naruto grinned at the chance to actually use this move in battle. With the two boys about a half body length apart back to back Naruto was in perfect position to execute a move that he had been working on.

'You're a good test subject for this move Kiba' Naruto thought to himself, 'Lets see if this is actually combat ready.'

The people facing Naruto could see the large grin on his face but were confused at how he could be happy at an awkward position. Their jaws dropped as he back flipped but instead of landing on his feet he put all his momentum on his right leg and hitting Kiba right on the forehead as he was just turning. Naruto used the force from kicking Kiba with the flipping bicycle kick to flip back forwards landing on his feet.

**Akari Tenmetsu** (Flashing Light) Naruto whispered as Kiba was on the ground unconscious from the devastating kick.

Everyone was silent as Naruto stood silent looking over his downed opponent with a satisfied look on his face. The move was flashy but it left people wondering how it took Kiba down when it looked like it wasn't that hard hitting.

"Shousha, Inuzuka Kiba!" Iruka-sensei yelled causing the majority to look at the man as if he was crazy.

"What!?" Naruto yelled as he glared at the scarred chunin with cold unwavering eyes.

Iruka winced at the piercing glare but stood his ground, "I'm sorry but you stepped out of bounds Naruto." He said as he pointed to where he stood.

Naruto looked down and saw that he was indeed out of bounds marking his disqualification.

"A ninja who doesn't know his surroundings is an incapable ninja," Iruka-sensei said as if teaching the students a lesson.

"Feh, whatever" Naruto said as he made his way back to the crowd of students to allow the next two combatants to have the arena.

'Even when I win I lose," Naruto thought to himself not happy at the outcome of the fight. He had not always been good at taijutsu. Even now his hand to hand fighting skills left much to be desired.

He remembered the time when he was dead last when it came to taijutsu. He had worked hard, even after failing the academy, for the skills he had to this day. It wasn't the fact that people didn't acknowledge his win that got to him it was the fact that they didn't acknowledge his strength.

Listening to the people congratulating a slightly dazed Kiba on his 'well deserved win' irked the frowning blonde. He could careless about what everyone thought of him but they better see that he's a damn strong ninja. Almost like they had completely forgotten the fight itself, and who knocked out who, certainly didn't bode well with Naruto.

* * *

With the taijutsu class ranking test complete the class was given time to eat lunch until their review for the academy ninjutsu was to be conducted.

Naruto found himself sitting alone underneath a tree eating the packed onigiri's he had made. The rice balls themselves were nothing specials, just the regular triangular shaped compacted rice with seaweed on the side.

While munching on his food Naruto was talking to the beast within him.

'Hey Kyuubi you said that I didn't have all of my chakra right?' Naruto asked. It's been weighing in on his mind ever since the demon mentioned it to him earlier in the day.

**"Yes, I've already explained this to you. Now go away I'm trying to take a nap"**

A tic mark formed on Naruto's head at the being dismissed by the lazy fox, 'I know you over sized fox. I just want to know more about it." Naruto crossed his arms, 'I want to know if I can get it back.'

**"Well it is possible for you to get your chakra back..."**

A smile formed on Naruto's face, 'Great! How do I do that?'

**"...By releasing me."**

The smile disappeared from Naruto's face, 'Yeah not going to happen.'

Their conversation was cut short and a bell rang, signifying that lunch time was over. Packing his food Naruto returned to the class room to find that most of the kids were already back, with a few stragglers just coming in.

Taking his seat from before Naruto waited until the class began.

"Okay class we will be reviewing the basic three ninjutsu," Iruka-sensei said projecting his voice. "We'll start with the Henge (Transformation)."

One by one students were asked to perform the henge in the front of the class. There were some poorly constructed henge's but there were also some realistic transformations.

The slight genjutsu based ninjutsu was actually a technique that Naruto found easy to do. By using a layer of chakra to construct an illusion around the user, the person would be able to create any facial structure and body type that the person wanted to create. Of course it takes a good amount of control to manipulate one's chakra to use Henge (Transformation) effectively.

Control was Naruto's forte, with his average chakra pool he had a prodigal grasp on how to effectively control his chakra. He figured, now that he knew about his siphoned chakra, that his amazing control was a result of having chakra taken away.

His body was probably designed to handle a mass amount of chakra but with the seal limiting the amount he had made it easier for his body to control his chakra.

Imagine a pool to represent a large amount of chakra. To use certain techniques you must use a portion of this body of water whether it be half of the pool, a fourth, an eighth, ect. Its much harder to judge if you've effectively cut a portion of that large body of water in the right amount compared to say a bucket.

With Naruto's body designed to portion a 'lake sized' chakra pool but now left with say a 'bucket' his body has an easier time controlling and portioning his chakra.

Of course he was left with the disadvantaged of having less chakra but he found that he didn't mind that much. He liked the idea of having the capabilities of performing techniques easier instead of having a limitless amount of chakra but without the finesse to even use techniques.

If there was one thing no one could beat Naruto in, it was control.

**Authors Note:**

**So this has been on my mind for a while. I've read a fair amount of Naruto Fanfiction and in practically every single story, whether Naruto's a main nin/gen/taijutsu specialist, he always has a massive unmatched amount of chakra. Well I figured a Naruto that has a shit load of chakra but shitty control gets a bit boring sometimes so I wanted to go about it differently. What if Naruto's problem isn't that he can't control his vast amount of chakra but the fact that he has less. Instead of over powering opponents by spamming clones or using the clone training method to create a shortcut to become an unbeatable force, he'll have to win with finesse, handwork, intelligence and creativity. Well this ****fic is the manifestation of that idea rattling in my brain.**

**I hope you guys like it!**

**And don't forget to Review**


	2. Chapter 2

Lack of Control

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2

Sweat rolled down Naruto's face as he continued his rigorous training regiment. After class was over in the Academy he would go over to a clearing that he had discovered and train.

It was a quiet little place just outside the village walls. He had found it one night after a rather unpleasant experience that caused him to want to just be alone. Finding the clearing was sort of a saving grace for the boy. It was a place where he could find tranquility and a haven from the harsh village enmity.

It was a pretty peaceful place with a river just a few acres away that was easily accessible from where the clearing was. It certainly came in handy during hot days, for cooling off.

Most of the surrounding trees around the clearing had lost most of the bark surrounding it due to Naruto's continual punching and kicking to strengthen his attacks. He circulated the tree he used to keep from completely decimating the plant life but the trees still showed the strain from the repetitive strikes.

It has become a regular routine for Naruto to practice after classes were over. It wasn't like an epiphany he had that he had to practice to become stronger, al though he knew that now and it certainly helped. His reason for training was actually very simple, it was the only thing he could do.

Without friends or anyone to spend time with him, his isolation had led him to the one of few things he could do to keep him from going insane via idle.

At first it had been something that simple, just a way to pass time and keep himself from being bored. Eventually it became some what of a stress reliever for him.

It kept his thoughts from his harsh life, plus it allowed him to release his aggression that he's build up from from the frustration he felt. That's probably whats kept him from from becoming a sociopath from the lack of affection he's had to endure.

While it wasn't quite close to a hug at least it was any sort of feeling. Pain and solitude had ruled his life it's almost fitting that he finds comfort in something like harsh training.

Punching the naked trunk of the tree in front of him with solid lefts and right. Thoroughly going at a pace that allowed him to use power and increase his durability, Naruto couldn't help but feel disappointed in the lack of progress he had made recently.

Training physically like this had a huge amount of upside that he couldn't refute but the fact that recently his progress had plateaued left him a little discouraged. He figured that the Kyuubi would at least have an idea on how he could improve his skills but found that was a dead end. To quote the mass being of chakra.

'I'm have the shape of a fox, I don't punch.'

That was true but it didn't stop Naruto from thinking maybe the almighty Kyuubi would at least have a little amount of knowledge that could help him with his lack of technique.

There was just so much that he wasn't allowed to learn from those prejudice teachers that it was hard for him to properly reach his true potential. He knew deep down that he was just as good, if not better, than anyone in the academy should he had received the proper help.

With one final punch Naruto decided that it was time for him to go home and get some rest. Looking up he found that it was already dark with a few specks of stars gracing the night sky.

It was fairly nice out so a little dip in the river instead of walking home in sweat wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Deciding that there was no harm in such an idea Naruto gathered his things and proceeded to head for the river.

It wasn't a long walk, it barely took him 5 minutes to get there. Taking his sweaty clothing off Naruto jumped into the cold water, bare as the day he was born.

"Fuckkkk, that's cold!" Naruto yelled out as he shivered from the cool river water.

Swimming around the calm water it wasn't long before he got used to the cold and his body was able to adapt to the temperature allowing him to fully enjoy the serene moment.

Lazily floating on his back Naruto couldn't help but stare up at the moon. It wasn't as bright as it could have been since it was only a crescent, and not a full, but it still illuminated the clearing.

A small smile graced his lips as he felt content at the moment. It was times like these that Naruto could truly appreciate the nature around him. Water flicked into his face causing him to float upwards and saw that there was a small school of fishes swimming up the river. A feral grin made it way on Naruto's face as he dived down.

Swimming towards the fishes Naruto pumped a little chakra into his limbs to swim faster as he tensed his fingers to capture the frantic school of fishes.

Using chakra to enhance movement was something Naruto had discovered himself. It wasn't taught in the academy, as far as he knew, and was something he had learned by chance.

Grasping the salmon that he had manage to grab Naruto swam up shore and threw the fish on the ground. Keeping it a good distance away from the water as he didn't want it to flop into the water as it flailed around. Naruto got a fire started to cook his prize.

Putting on some clothes and grabbing a kunai from his weapons pouch Naruto cut the belly of the fish and gutted his meal. Flaying the scales, he took one of the sticks laying around and stuck it through the fish's mouth and set it by the fire to properly cook it.

It wasn't long before the fish was cooked. Scarfing down his meal Naruto laid down by the dying flames as he sighed in content. The moon was still bright and beautiful. Gazing at the scenery Naruto felt his eyes droop over as the light disappeared and all that was left was darkness.

* * *

_A lonely boy walked along the road as the people around him pointed and whispered. The boy wore ragged clothing that seemed to be a size or two bigger than him with various holes showing the malnourished body underneath._

_The harsh glares seemed to be ignored by the young boy as his hollowed figure slowly walked down the road with no clear destination._

_A rumble caused the boy to twitch showing the first sign of emotion on his face. As soon as it appeared it was gone just as fast. Left with hunger the boy trudged along._

_Coming upon a a trash can just outside of a dirty looking restaurant the boy started to scavenge for anything worth edible. Not caring at how it looked or what it was the boy just ate anything that was edible._

_"Hey, don't do that!"_

_A voice caused the boy to look up slowly from what he was doing. Holding a piece of mushed up tomato slices, from what it looked like. The boy just tilt his head not conveying any emotions._

_"You'll get a tummy ache from that!"_

_The boy could only stare at the source of the voice. It was a young girl that was just slightly taller than him. Her fist on her waist, she marched over to where he was. She wore a white dress with patterns of birds on it and a dark jacket with golden buttons on it. She had long wavy black hair that reached her mid back that seemed to lighten to a dark brown at the tips. Her bright hazel eyes were widened, as if astonished by what she saw, with her light pink lips tightened. She was very pale he noted. A contrast from his sun tanned skin; she was pure white like snow._

_"You can't eat things from there."_

_She grabbed his hand and pulled him along causing another emotion to appear on his face for only the second time that day._

_"It's dirty and not good for you."_

_She continued to pull him along not saying where they were going but continued to tell him how it was 'bad to eat dirty food', or how 'he'll get sick.'_

_"And then you'll die!" She said letting go of his hand as her arms raised up in an exaggerated manner._

_The boy sweat dropped at the sudden exaggeration but said nothing._

_"If you're hungry then this is the place to go!" Gesturing to a dainty looking stand with white flaps and stools by a counter just beyond the veil. Peering inside the boy could see an old man with a dark green apron and a white cap. There was also a young girl that looked to be older than him wearing the same green apron but instead of a white cap she wore a white bandana that pulled back her long brown hair._

_"Don't worry this place is the best."_

_He turned towards her as she smiled gently causing him to blush slightly and turn away. The girl giggled and grabbed his hand again and this time instead of dragging him he walked calmly along side her as she led him inside._

_"Two miso ramen please." The girls said to the chef and got a 'coming right up' respond._

_The boy continued to look around the stand and was amazed at all the things he saw. Al though it was a fairly simple stand it was still the very first time he had ever been in a place like this. The simple stools, the counter, even the soy sauce and chopsticks that was placed on the stand left him amazed._

_"So what's your name?"_

_The question caused the boy to stop looking around and once again look at the young girl that brought him there. The girl squirmed slightly as he just stared at her with his piercing blue eyes._

_Seeing as he wasn't saying anything she took the initiative, "Ah, I'm sorry that was rude of me. My name's Kiyoko, Tsuki Kiyoko."_

_The boy continued to look at her as if not understanding what she was saying._

_"You do know what your name is right?" She asked uncertain._

_The boy scrunched up his face as if contemplating what she was asking. He opened his mouth to speak, "D-demon?" he sounded uncertain as if he wasn't sure._

_Kiyoko couldn't help but giggle, "Hehehe, you're silly!" She laughed holding her hand to her mouth, "What's your real name silly?"_

_The 'demon' once again scrunched up his face in contemplation, trying to come up with his name. "Scum?"_

_The girl stopped giggling and looked at the boy intently. 'Could he actually not know what is name is.'_

_"His name's Naruto."_

_Both Kiyoko and Naruto looked up from their conversation to see the chef of the ramen stand._

_"Huh?" Naruto said not understanding._

_"You're name's Naruto."_

_"Naruto." Naruto said as if testing his name out for the first time in his life, which it was._

_"Yes, now here you two go two of the finest miso ramen in all of The Land of Fire." The chef putting down two steaming bowls of ramen with pride. The girl once again giggled at the mans proclamation._

_The aroma wafted around Naruto's head causing him to drool in hunger. His stomach grumbled as he watched the girl next to him break her chopsticks apart and dig in. His hunger intensified at the sight._

_"Well aren't you going to eat too?"_

_Look to see the girl working in the stand with her hands on her hips and a smile on her face. "It's really good."_

_She gestured for him to eat which he complied. Taking the chopsticks and tentatively taking a bite of ramen. His eyes widened at the taste. Taking bigger bites and guzzling down the food he was finished in less than 5 minutes._

_The two girls couldn't help but giggle at the boy which caused him to smile for the very first time. Soon he joined in on the laughter feeling happiness for the first time in his life._

* * *

Thunk.

Blurry eyed Naruto wiped his eyes awake as noises woke him from his sleep. Squinting his eyes from the glaring morning sunlight he sat up in a sitting position and looked around.

He had decided to sleep out considering how nice it was. From the position of the sun he had to guess it was maybe around noon. Already feeling annoyed at the way he was feeling after that dream he had. He was even more ticked off that someone was making so much noise that it woke him up.

Thunk.

Flinching at the noise Naruto got up from his spot and looked around to try and find the source of the noise.

Thunk.

His eyebrows started to twitch in annoyance as he started to walk around and listening to try and locate the victim, ahem person.

Coming upon a training ground not too far off where he was sleeping, Naruto found a woman training as she threw kunai's at a humanoid dummy. Naruto couldn't help but flinch once again as she threw the knife and stuck it between the dummy's eyes as the thunk resonated.

She was quite beautiful from what Naruto could tell. She had shoulder length ebony black wavy hair that framed her elegant face. An unusual outfit that looked like a bunch of bandages that covered her body all the way down to her upper legs. She had a single red sleeve and bandage covered hands. What was most unusual about her wasn't her clothing but her ruby red eyes.

He had never seen red eyes before, they fox had them but he doesn't count. It was quite unusual and exotic which only added to her allure.

Quickly diving to his left as he barely dodged an incoming kunai thrown at him from the woman training.

"Who's there!"

Sweating at how close he had come to having been impaled by the projectile, Naruto tentatively raised his hands up in surrender.

"U-um, don't hurt me."

Now it might be a little embarrassing for Naruto to be so submissive, but from what he could tell the woman was a ninja. One thing he's learned in life was that ninja's, even kunoichi's, are dangerous when sneaked up on.

"I just heard noises and checked to see what it was."

The woman looked at him as if she was contemplating if she should skewer him or let him go. She made eye contact with him and for some reason Naruto felt a slight chill come over him.

"What's your name?" She asked, to Naruto her voice sounded so smooth.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

A slight look of surprise came upon her face but was quickly masked as her face was once again cold as ice.

"What were you doing spying on me?"

"I was just looking for the noise that woke me up and I saw you training here."

She nodded accepting the answer, keeping her eyes locked with his Naruto felt that he couldn't look away from her hypnotic gaze.

"What did you see?"

"I saw a you training with your kunai's. It was really amazing to watch, you had such fluidity with your movement that it looked like you hardly put any effort in throwing at all."

For some reason Naruto didn't know why he was being so truthful. He didn't mean to speak so much in detail but he just felt compelled to tell her anything. Naruto couldn't help but shiver as he felt chilly even with the bright sun shining at its hottest.

The woman raised an elegant eyebrow at his response and seemed to accept that he was telling the truth. She took her gaze away from his and walked over to the dummy to pick up her kunai's.

Naruto felt the chill leave him as soon as she looked away and couldn't help but feel like he was just used. Not understanding at what happened Naruto got upset and voiced his anger.

"Hey, what was that!"

The woman stopped what she was doing and looked at him in the eye but this time Naruto didn't feel a chill come over him.

"It was a simple genjutsu to make you tell the truth." Was her simple response.

Naruto scrunched up his face not liking the fact that he was some how forced to tell the truth. Not that he was going to lie about anything, since he didn't do anything wrong, but he still didn't like the fact he was manipulated some how to speak against his will.

"Forgive me for having used genjutsu on you Uzumaki-san," She apologized as if reading his mind, "I only used it to make sure you weren't spying on me."

Understanding that ninja's are very secretive with their jutsu's he could understand where she was coming from. Not one to hold a grudge Naruto just waved her off and told her it was fine.

He continued to watch her a little bit longer as she picked up her things and once again return to her previous spot where she was throwing the knives.

Noticing that he was still watching her she turned to him, "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Naruto mulled over his response, "How did you do that?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, "It's simple shurikenjutsu, I would imagine the instructors from the academy would have taught you students at least that much."

Naruto blushed at the subtle jab, "No, no I don't mean that I mean how did you make me tell you the truth."

She smiled slightly as she made eye contact with him and Naruto once again felt the previous chill enter his body.

"Do you mean this?" She asked her voice once again in that velvety tone.

Naruto tried to nod and not say anything but found himself opening his mouth and answering yes.

**"Brat, she's controlling you."**

Naruto couldn't help but grimace at the voice.

'Don't you think I know that furball.' Naruto bit back not appreciating the Kyuubi telling him the obvious.

**"Just thought I'd let you know."** The beast snarled back.

Not hearing anything else from the fox Naruto figured he had went back to sleep. That damn lazy fox.

Naruto remembered a lecture from Iruka-sensei's class about genjutsu.

Genjutsu techniques are the illusion techniques of a ninja, they normally require hand seals. Genjutsu will use hypnotism to cause hallucinations in others. By causing such illusions they can cause their target mental pain and suffering just as real as physical hurt. Genjutsu is created when a ninja extends their chakra flow through the cerebral nervous system of their opponent to control their minds chakra, thereby affecting their five senses.

To combat the effects of Genjutsu, there are two options. The first option is for the ninja to stop the flow of chakra in their body, and then apply an even stronger power to disrupt the flow of the casters chakra. The second option is to have an outside ninja unaffected by the Genjutsu make body contact, and use their chakra to disrupt the casters flow.(1)

Another way that a person could escape an illusion based attack would be to inflict pain on one's self. It's usually only effective when it was a low level genjutsu and from what Naruto could tell the illusion the woman had casted on his wasn't overly powerful.

Taking a kunai from his weapons pouch, causing the woman to look on in surprise, Naruto stabbed himself on the hand causing pain to shoot through him and blood to drip down from the wound.

He didn't even flinch at the pain but it was enough to stop the chill from his body to cease. The wound was pretty shallow but the woman still came running at him in worry.

Taking his hand into hers Naruto couldn't help but blush slightly at the action.

"It's okay it's pretty shallow it'll heal up pretty fast."

The woman just glared at him and pulled out a first aid kit and started to clean the wound.

Naruto couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed at her worrying but allowed her to dress his wound in silence.

Once the injury was properly taken care off she just stood and glared at him making him squirm in uneasiness.

"Why did you do that?" She asked with a little bit of steel in her voice.

Even without the genjutsu Naruto felt like he couldn't lie to her. "I remembered that pain can cancel out genjutsu's."

If anything her glare intensified, which was quite intimidating with her red eyes. "So you figured you should just stab yourself."

Naruto felt like he should tread lightly, but then again when was he ever the kind of person to tread lightly. "Um, yes?"

She kept glaring at him for a few more seconds before she sighed and raised her hand up to her temple and massaged them. "You're an idiot." Was her simple response.

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle nervously and raise a hand up to the back of his head and scratch the nape of his neck, a habit he had pick up long ago.

Sticking her hand out, "Yuhi Kurenai," She said with her hand extended.

Naruto smiled and grasped the hand and shook it. "Uzumaki Naruto, but you already genjutsu-ed that out of me."

She cracked a smile and chuckled lightly.

"So," Naruto drawled out, "How did you do that?"

She smiled even wider causing Naruto to speak before she could, "I don't mean the shurikens!"

If anything her smile just got any wider. "And don't genjutsu me again!" He said hurriedly causing her to chuckle.

Scowling at her he crossed his arms and waited impatiently to tell him how he was able to do what she did.

"Haha alright, alright it was actually a pretty simple genjutsu that many of the interrogators know."

Finding no reason in revealing a simple technique to the academy student, it was after all a jutsu that was introduced to them near the end of their school days. It was necessary due to the effects it had should a ninja be unable to identify the genjutsu.

Nodding for her to continue, "It's a mild genjutsu that can be used through hand seals, or if the user has enough chakra control can be used through the eyes."

"But that doesn't tell me HOW you did it."

Kurenai smiled at the boy and his eagerness. It wasn't everyday that she could show off her genjutsu.

"Well chakra can be used outside of the body in its intangible form, one example would be chakra strings that puppeteers in Suna use to control their puppets." She explained.

"Only a small amount is needed to invade a persons chakra system. Through the use of hand seals you can create illusions by manipulating your invading chakra to attack the person's senses."

Naruto nodded in understanding. He already had a previous idea on genjutsu but learning more about it was always helpful.

Kurenai watched on as the boy stood in silence. She found that the academy didn't emphasize on genjutsu enough. It's one of the most important ninja skills to have, in her opinion, and the lack of education on the subject always infuriated her.

The boy looked up causing her to raise an eyebrow as he locked gazes with her. After a few moments she felt a slight chakra spike coming from the boy, it wasn't large but it was a big enough spike that she felt it.

Her eyes widened as she figured out what he was trying to do. She felt a slight chill come over her causing her to put her hands together and yell, "Kai! (Release)"

She stood flabbergast at the attempt. She didn't expect the boy to be able to use the genjutsu without even knowing the full theory behind it. Al though the genjutsu wasn't perfect it definitely worked as she felt the slight chill that the jutsu produced.

"Did it work?" The boy asked knocking Kurenai out of her stupor.

"I-uh." She was at a loss for words. She was pretty sure the boy didn't even use any hand seals as she had not seen him make any. That took a crazy amount of control to do.

"How did you do that?" She asked perplexed, there was just no way an academy student had the talent to do what he just did.

"So it did work?" The boy asked excitedly, to which she could only nod.

"Awesome," He said as he pumped a fist, "Genjutsu's pretty cool Kurenai-san, I could feel my chakra within yours."

Kurenai nodded at the description. A genjutsu user is capable of feeling its own chakra immerse itself on another persons chakra which is how a user is able to direct the chakra to affect the other persons senses.

"You have a lot of talent for genjutsu Naruto," She started, "do you think you could use that genjutsu again?"

Naruto nodded and locked eyes with her once again. Sending a pulse of chakra to his eyes, Naruto spiked his chakra to send the energy gathered in his eyes to invade Kurenai's through their eye contact.

This time it took him a little less longer to invade her chakra. Kurenai broke the genjutsu without the use of seals expelling Naruto's foreign chakra out of her system.

It definitely wasn't a fluke. He had the control to not only use the genjutsu but he used his eyes without the use of seals. The boy either had amazing control or he was just a natural genjutsu user, or maybe even both!

"Ne, ne Kurenai-san do you think you can show me a bit more genjutsu?" He asked eagerly.

Kurenai mulled over the question. The boy certainly had talent but he wasn't a ninja. It was strictly forbidden for a ninja to train anyone other than another ninja of the village. The fact that he learned how to use **Shinjitsu** (Truth) due to her explanation could get her in trouble as it was.

Shaking her head no, "I'm sorry Naruto-san but since you are not a ninja of Konohagakure yet I can't teach you any techniques."

Naruto's face fell but quickly brightened up at her words, "What about when I'm a ninja?" He asked with a smile on his face.

Kurenai returned the smile, "Come find me when that happens."

"I'll be sure to do that." He said with a smile.

"While I can't show you any techniques I can show you a few exercises that will be a great help if you still wish to learn genjutsu."

Naruto couldn't help but smile brightly at the offer, to which he nodded happily.

"Naruto, how do you feel about climbing trees?" She asked with a strange glint in her eyes that caused Naruto to sweat drop.

**Author's Note:**

**1. I actually got this description of genjutsu from a website online. It's the Naruto wiki website so that part wasn't of my own words.**

**Well here's the next chapter. Just a little view on Naruto's past, an introduction to a character I have big plans for, and someone that will be a big part of Naruto's future. Now we get to Naruto learning one of few arts that control emphasizes on. Now I've reread this chapter and taken care of any spelling mistakes I could find but my grammar isn't perfect so there are probably a few tenses that I missed. I'm really liking how this story's going so far. I'm excited to write this and usually that's a good sign for me to have the motivation to write down the idea's in my head.**

**Well I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Be sure to leave me a Review!**


End file.
